Improvement in bee-hives



. E. CORNER.

Bee Hivex No. 34,034. Patented nec. 24, 1861.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDIVIN CORNER, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO.

IMPROVEM ENT IN BEE-HIVES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,034, dated December 24, 1861.

.To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, EDWIN CORNER, of Columbus, in the county of Franklin, in the State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Bee-Hives; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full description thereof, reference beingvhad to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a horizontal section, and Fig. 2 is a side elevation, of a bee-hive having my improvement thereto.

The nature and object of my invention consists in so constructing a bee-hive as to lessen the labor of the bee-keeper, and to make a hive so simple and so easily understood that any one disposed may safely and successfully embark in the culture of bees without prevons training in the art, and at once perform the part of an apiarian.

To enable others to make and use my improvement, I will proceed to describe the saine with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The outside appearance of mybee-hive when the doors are closed very much resembles the old-fashioned box-hive, with an addition A of six inches in height for a chamber in which are honey-drawers B, after the manner of the old Vermont hive. My front board is twelve and three-fourths inches wide and two feet long. My back board C is twelve and three-fourths inches wide and sixteen and one-half inches long. I attach, by screws or nails, a piece of plank one and one-half inch thick and eight and one-fourth inches wide and seventeen inches long to the inner surface of the front board up and down in its center and within one inch of the lower end of said front board. To this again I attach another piece of plank one and one-half inch thick and four and three fourths inches wide and seventeen inches long, screwed or nailed to the center, the upper ends of both to be eighteen inches from the lower end of the front board. Then upon the middle of the inner surface of the back board C, I attach a piece of plank one and one-half inch thick and one and threefourths inch wide and fifteen and three-fourths inches long, and made even with its upper end. I then connect the front and back boards together in the middle of each by two girders or cross-ties of one and one-half inch wide up and down and one and one-fourth inch thick, with tenons on each end, to reach .entirely through the two pieces of plank attached to the front board and through the one piece on the back board C, the upper girder to be threeeighths of an inch below the upper end of the back board C and directly square with it, the lower girder to be about one inch above the lower end of the back board C. These two girders or cross-ties, to be thirteen inches long, will make the front and back boards to be (calling them inch stuff) just fifteen inches apart. Having the front and back boards connected by these girders, I make them more firm by placing a top boardD to the bees department, twelve and three-fourths inches wide and sixteen and one-half inches long, nailing it to the front board and also to the upper ends of the two pieces of plank attached to it, and by nailing the back end to the tcp end of the back board C, the top board D to extend over and back of the back board C two and one-half inches, with a groove to hold the lower side of the sliding door C to close up the honey-drawers chamber.

The side boards F and F of the hive below the honey-chamber stop half-way upon the edges of the top board D to the bees department, and are both hung upon hinges, as doors F and F, to the outer edges of the front board, and when shut are held to the back board C by hasps Gr and G. You can in a moment unhasp either, and by opening these doors F and F full access is had to the interior of the hive by an outward turn of the comb-frames H H H, which are also hung upon hingesthe iirst, No. 1, to the front board, No. 2 to the edge of the eight-and-onefourth-inch plank, and No. 3 to the four-andthree-fourths-inch plank. The comb-frames are all hung three-eighths' of an inch below the top board D. The fourth or middle comb is stationary, attached to the girders above and below. The comb-frames are similar in part to a gate-frame without the palings, and swing out one after the other, by which operation the entire combs and every inch of the interior of the hive can be expeditiously examined. Both sides of the hive are the same in structure, only reversed.

The comb-frames HH H are hung on hinges that are made to lift up and olf, and by which they are transferable to any hive of like build and dimensions. As there are no hinges ordinarily made of the proper size and kind, I take a very small Wrought butt of iron or brass and out o the upper connection of the two-sided side, and l have a hinge adapted to lifting off, which can be done in a moment. My comb-frames are substantially made, the hinge-bar three-fourths by one and one-fourth inch, the end and outer bars tive-eighths by one and oneffourth. I brace them by cutting pieces of tin to suit the two hinge-corners, and nail them fasnwhich extend each Way about three or four inches. I place screws in the middle of each comb-frame, Which act as stops when closing the comb-frames, keeping them at their proper distance (one-half inch) from each other and from the doors, which when shut and hasped hold every frame firm in its place, so there is no crushing of bees nor chalng of the combs. My comb-frames are made to give ample room for the bees to pass over and around them on both sides and ends. The back board of the hive being one and one-half inch shorter on its bottom end than the front board, the hive has to stand upon an inclined bottom board I to make it perpendicular. This inclination is made to favor the bees in removing whatever is oensive to them. The lower ends of the comb-frames have the same bevel.

The lower ends of the four boards that make the body of the hive are beveled oli' to near one-eighth of an inch to avoid as near as may be the crushing oi' the bees in turning up and in replacing the hive, which is most sure to 'be done if they are left the full size. The foregoing is all that is material in the formation of the bees department of my hive.

Upon this I build a chamber B for surplus honey-drawers.

Having thus fully fully described my improvement, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- Hinging the comb-frames in steps, so that the several frames may be swung open at the same time, as described, in combination With the hinged door and stationary central frame, substantially as and for the purpose specied.

EDWIN CORNER. Attest: v

B. TRESENRIDER2 H. H. KIMBALL. 

